LiverKick - LiverKick

The departure of a select few Heavyweight and Super Heavyweight Kickboxers from K-1 action has led the media and fans to quickly declare Heavyweight Kickboxing as "dead" and that there is a shallow talent pool. We here at LiverKick.com beg to differ, as K-1 might be the type of company to promote the same fighters year in and year out, but that does not mean there is no other talent out there. About a week ago, I wrote an article that Heavyweight Kickboxing was not dead, and Rian followed up with his own proof. The basic idea is that while some of your favorites might not be fighting in Kickboxing (for a while, let's be honest, they'll be back), that does not mean that there is a lack of talent. There is actually a ton of talent out there, and just as I promised, it is time to start introducing more fans to them.

First up is Ismael Londt. Londt fights out of the legendary Team Slamm, known for their Muay Thai adapted to Kickboxing. He is a 24 year old fighter and for a fighter as young as he is, he is already getting a lot of hype and has amassed a 25-2-1 record, which is impressive considering the level of competition he has been fighting. He has wins over fighters like Sergei Laschenko, Sebastian Ciobanu, Rico Verhoeven and Mladen Brestovac. If you aren't familiar with all of those names that is OK, but understand they are some of the best fighters coming up in the scene.

Londt has moved up in the SuperKombat tournament to the Final 4 and he faces yet another young star in Pavel Zhuravlev in a widely anticipated bout. Now, as to why people are excited about Londt.

The way Londt moves is like a veteren who has been around for many years. He mixes in a lot of the explosiveness that a fighter like Badr Hari brings to the table while still controlling his emotions and remembering to defend himself before going crazy. He is a Kickboxers Kickboxer, with great technique and legitimate Fight IQ. He goes for the kill when he sees it, and when he doesn't he makes sure to cover his bases without getting frustrated. So of course, why tell when we can show?

While everyone is pretty certain that Badr Hari will be booked on whatever LEGEND event pops up next, it looks like Badr Hari will be fighting in the Netherlands yet again, this time not under any familiar banner. If that sounds far-fetched to you, as Badr Hari is a top dollar Heavyweight fighter, I share those sentiments, but it appears to be legitimate. On May 17th in the Netherlands Badr Hari is scheduled to meet Ismael Londt in a Kickboxing bout for A1 WCC.

The event is being promoted by the Gunyar Brothers and will also feature a 16-man 70kg tournament. [source]

In what might be the least shocking bit of news to Kickboxing fans, the fight in May between Badr Hari and Ismael Londt has been cancelled. This confirms reports that we've been hearing for at least the past few weeks that the Gunyar brothers, who were promoting the fight, were having issues acquiring a license to promote an event in Eindhoven (which shares Amsterdam's laws in this case). This, of course, comes as zero shock if you've been following Dutch Kickboxing.

There have been incredibly heavy restrictions set on Kickboxing events in Amsterdam and neighboring cities thanks to a law called BIBOB that is targeted at organized crime. The school of thought was that Kickboxing events held within the city would always pander to certain "VIPs" from the world of organized crime, thus making them meeting places for criminals. The city of Amsterdam wanted to clean up their reputation and saw this as a natural way to do so.

It didn't matter how legitimate of a business the Gunyars were going to run, trying to promote a convicted criminal with known ties to organized crime in an event in Amsterdam was never, ever going to work. According to Badr Hari's Facebook page, "May 29th in Dubai" seems to be his next stop.